A decision by a Japanese man to stream his suicide “live” online is creating a stir among netizens.
Police in the northern city of Sendai in Japan’s Miyagi prefecture found the 24-year-old’s body in his apartment on Tuesday morning after receiving reports from Internet users, reported Japanese daily Yomiuri Shimbun.
Investigators believe that at around 3.45am on Tuesday, the man attempted to hang himself on his balcony, apparently using knotted sheets, but the joist buckled under his weight.
The video then showed him finding a new spot and and repeating the attempted at 5.30am, at which point viewers could make out that his body had gone perfectly still.
UStream, an American website that allows users to post images or videos “live”, stopped the broadcast after 6am after a large number of viewers complained about the horrific images. The video was also uploaded to YouTube, but was removed soon after.
The man had been on an extended leave from work since August and the Sankei Shimbun newspaper reported that he worked for a banking institution and that he was facing problems at the office.
Last Sunday, on November 7, in his broadcast on Ustream, he talked about his life and discussed his plan to commit suicide on an online forum.
The broadcast drew a variety of responses, with some users instigating him to kill himself.
Some of the taunts on the forum read “Die now” and “Please die quickly”.
However, others encouraged him to keep on living. “Please live! Please live!” and “It’s OK, please don’t die”, read some of the comments.
His feed went dead on Monday, causing Internet users to question the credibility of his declarations.
However, on Tuesday around midnight, the channel came back online and the man went on to hang himself in his apartment, with the scene playing live.
Local police say no will has been found but they did reveal that a man had posted a message to them around 1.40am to inform them of his intention to kill himself.
The suicide rate in Japan is one of the highest in the world, accounting for more than 32,000 deaths last year, the 12th consecutive year to exceed 30,000.
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